Reading this post, it occurs to me that with Godwin's Law in full bloom it'll soon become necessary for critics to find a new and unused batch of historical tyrants analogous to Obama. Hitler, Stalin, and Mao are becoming stale.
Pol Pot is too easy. Ceauşescu too hard to spell. Idi Amin is a vague figure to the generation born in the 80s and 90s, and wouldn't be punchy enough. I think the right will need help on this one. So, to which other historical tyrants does Obama also bear an uncanny resemblance?
Ivan the Terrible? Vlad the Impaler? Robert Mugabe? Torquemada? These guys are all probably second tier. What about third tier? Or fourth, if Obama is elected for a second term?
Here's a mind-blower. What if the fringe began to suggest that Obama bears an uncanny resemblance to... Dick Cheney?
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David Koresh? Or does he enjoy grudging sympathy among conservatives. With all the references to "drinking the Kool-Aid" you'd think "Jim Jones" or "Jonestown" would work, but these don't have the direct line to the lizard brain that "Hitler" has. Word potency like this must go back to childhood, upbringing and have a critical period for inculcating. The absence of other options and the overuse of the one name suggests its early-socializing function and its continuing function as a code word for evil. I suppose "evil" isn't scary enough, and we have no video of the Devil, so it takes a "Hitler" to trigger a bogeyman-size flinch.
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